Check out this pig...and they say cormorants are eating all the salmon/steelhead smolts.


http://www.idahostatesman.com/2015/01/23/3607027_monster-rainbow-caught-and-released.html?rh=1

Not sure what cormorants eating steelhead/salmon smolts have to do with a guy catching a pen-raised triploid rainbow...kind of a non sequitur.

Some guys might look at that clown fish and think it's awesome...I can't help but look at it and think that the North Fork on the Clearwater used to be home to one of the greatest races of steelhead this planet has ever seen (30 and 40 pound steelhead not unheard of)...that is until the ridiculous Dworshak Reservoir was built. Good thing we got these beautiful turd eaters in exchange!

Freak of nature for sure.... 28+ girth, J F C! Talk about Jaba the Trout!

I've caught Kenai kings of 50 pounds that were 28 inches around.

Trout like these need their own classification for world records separate from "normal" trout.

Are we sure that the fish was a triploid.

Have several "normal" rainbows in Washington waters that weighted in the mid teens that were in Washington waters that were just regular stocked fish. In fact I think that the old state record of 22 pounds pre-dated the planting of triploids. The interesting thing was they to were had exception girth - lots of feed??

Curt

Some fish have the fat gene. I see it in bull trout. Every once in a while I catch one that has a fairly typical length but has girth off the charts for the length.

Seems genetic to me.

According to the article it was laying in a hole with a funnel of fresh-ground kokanee feeding it - hence it's incredible size and girth.

And yes, we'd rather have large, wild steelhead than super-sized tailwater trout. Heck of a catch anyway especially on light tackle.

fixed it for ya... in kitsap county the bremalos are also know as triploids... this in direct reference to the number of their chins...


Seriously though, I remember reading something a few years ago about an ocean caught, world record steelhead that had a certain missing gene that caused it to eat and grow to extreme proportions...

I think it was even posted on here...

I'm with Jason Beezy on this one and agree with the fat gene concept. I've seen lots of Whatcom County Woman with typical length but girth off the chart. Wait a minute.................he was talk about fish. Never mind.

I highly doubt the "ground up Kokanee" explanation. There are tailwaters all over the Western United States with reservoirs above that don't experience Kokanee being shredded 24/7 and ejected downstream. Several of those tailwaters that have Kokanee harbor exceptionally large trout near the dams, but that is because of introduced Mysis Shrimp populations that get ejected from bottom release dams (feed for the Kokanee).

Dworshak hatchery records show that the facility has received triploid eggs numerous times.

Were the pre triploid rainbows that had exceptional length/girth ratios lake fish or river fish? It seems even stranger to see a rainbow with those dimensions in a river without some sort of triploid influence.

It's a fine catch on light tackle, and I'm sure a river full triploids would make a decent playground at times.

Having raised rainbow up to 16 pounds all that is required is feed, a really large rearing pond with good flows and floating feed. You take a normal WDFW lake plant Rainbow and raise it for two more years you can get them rather large. One year will get you between 4 and 8 pound fish. Jack Marshal up near Centralia grew Donaldson Rainbows for market and taught me how to do it. The trips? Nah they did not perform as well in the growth for some reason.